3 Anti-cancer drugs are imported duty-free, but general health problems do not receive attention in the budget.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Union Budget 2024-25, announcing complete exemption from duty on three more anti-cancer drugs, a move that could benefit thousands of cancer patients.

Although Sitharaman did not name the drugs in his budget speech, government sources told The Print that they are trastuzumab deructecan, osimertinib and durvalumab.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan (trade name Enherto) is used to treat certain types of breast, stomach, and lung cancer, and osimertinib (trade name Tagriso) is used to treat certain advanced lung cancers.Durvalumab, on the other hand, marketed under the Imfinzi brand, treats a variety of malignancies, including lung, endometrial and gallbladder cancer.

The drug announcement comes a year after pharmaceutical giant Merck announced that it would not pay any out-of-pocket costs for another cancer drug, pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

The Ministry of Health has announced that imported drugs for the treatment of rare diseases and other foods for special therapeutic purposes, included in the National Rare Disease Policy 2021, will be exempted from duty.

Previously, the tax exemption only applied to certain drugs used to treat rare diseases (spinal muscular atrophy or Duchenne muscular dystrophy).

Non-essential drugs and medicines generally attract a basic tax of 10%, while some categories of life-saving drugs or vaccines attract a 5% reduction.

In his budget speech, Sitharaman proposed overhauling key X-ray functions used in medical X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors under a phased manufacturing plan to align these projects with growing domestic manufacturing capacity.

This move can reduce the cost of x-ray equipment and help patients save on future costs.

“We thank the government for reducing the import duty on X-ray equipment components before starting production in India.This move will help us invest more in our efforts to become a global hub for X-ray equipment manufacturing,” Medical Device Industry Forum Coordinator.  .  .  organized

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Author: MedBlog18 Blog Team

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